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I don't care how this goes down...

I don't care how this goes down so long as CISPA doesn't become law. The House has now passed the bill. (I'm submitting that story to the newswire.) There is now a push asking people to call their Senators and to ask them to vote no.

All politicians only listen to those that pay for their campaigns. It doesn't matter what party, what country, what whatever you are talking about... The entire developed world is held hostage by big media. They control the flow of information, and decide what's "in" & "cool."

People in positions of power tend to like being in positions of power.
Let something stir the pot enough to rile the electorate, people listen.

Sometimes they get stupid and pay the price -- witness the electoral bloodbath of 2010, followed by the slap in the face administered to Republicans in 2012 after they got royally stupid and blew the opportunity that 2010 handed to them.

Did you notice how the recent spate of gun control measures went down?
Somebody has been studying the 1934 midterm elections.
That's when FDR went to the public with a list of items he'd try pushing through Congress only to be filibustered by Republicans.
That's when he took complete control of Congress.

Those pithy little gun-control measures are the kind of thing you can throw at somebody and say "He voted against this".

If Democrats really are wising up -- a seeming impossibility given their nature -- 2014 could be a very interesting year.

My comment, for example, was basically that one should not simply presume that CISPA can't be beaten because politicians care only about who's greasing their palms. The truth is that they also care about those who could force their palms away from all the grease.

> The truth is that they also care about those who could force their palms away from all the grease.

Yes. But that takes a fairly significant turnout of phone calls/letters from their voters to make them realize this issue is actually one which could have that result. And, as already noted, my letter/phone call would get rejected before it ever reached the pile.

I agree with dinotrac on this one. His posts hit the mark very well. Voting against something, anything that 90% of the people support is stupidity of the highest order. There is another issue that could cost the party who mainly voted against far more than the background check vote.

Regarding CISPA, we've beaten previous ill advised efforts to pass onerous bills that impact every Internet user. I don't think this one is any different if we get enough people angry. The key here is not to let up one little bit until this is dead.